Iran gives Muslim scientist prize to Turkish-French, Iranian

Turkish-French Sami Erol Gelenbe, right, and Iranian Mohammad Amin Shokrollahi, two computer science experts, show their awards during the biennial $500,000 Mustafa Prize ceremony at Vahdat Hall in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Dec. 3, 2017. The science and technology award, which is being handed out for the second time this year, is given to Muslim researchers and scientists, regardless of whether they live in Muslim-majority nations or elsewhere, as well as non-Muslim scientists residing in Muslim countries. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Turkish-French Sami Erol Gelenbe, right, and Iranian Mohammad Amin Shokrollahi, two computer science experts, hold their awards during the biennial $500,000 Mustafa Prize ceremony at Vahdat Hall in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Dec. 3, 2017. The science and technology award, which is being handed out for the second time this year, is given to Muslim researchers and scientists, regardless of whether they live in Muslim-majority nations or elsewhere, as well as non-Muslim scientists residing in Muslim countries. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Turkish-French Sami Erol Gelenbe, right, and Iranian Mohammad Amin Shokrollahi, two computer science experts, talk while holding their awards during the $500,000 Mustafa Prize ceremony at Vahdat Hall in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Dec. 3, 2017. The science and technology award, which is being handed out for the second time this year, is given to Muslim researchers and scientists, regardless of whether they live in Muslim-majority nations or elsewhere, as well as non-Muslim scientists residing in Muslim countries. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran on Sunday awarded its biennial $500,000 Mustafa Prize to two computer science experts, an Iranian and a Turkish-French national.

The science and technology award, which was handed out only for the second time ever, is given to Muslim researchers and scientists regardless of whether they live in Muslim-majority nations or elsewhere, as well as non-Muslim scientists in Muslim countries.

According to a statement, Iran's vice president in charge of scientific affairs, Sourena Sattari, said that the Turkish-French national, Sami Erol Gelenbe, and Iran's Mohammad Amin Shokrollahi, were being honored for their achievements in systems assessment in model-making and computer coding.

Along with medals and certificates, each winner gets $500,000.

Iran first handed out the prize in 2015 to a Taiwanese-Singaporean nanotechnology researcher Jackie Y.Ying and Jordanian-American chemistry professor Omar Yaghi.

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This story has been corrected to say that the prize is handed out every two years, not biannually.